What Am I Watching - It's Up To You!!!!

So, I'm at that time where I've been thinking about which series to watch and review. But no luck. Then I realized that I have 800+ people who visit this awesome site, and I came up with an (unoriginal) idea! How about the anime community recommend me on what to watch and review? After thinking about it, the idea sounded like a good one, so now's the opportunity for some creative juices to flow!

Oh, and don't worry, I won't be doing this all of the time. This is just a nice bit of fun for you guys.

Click here for the Facebook page!

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Anime News - Toei Funded Live-Action U.S. Pilot of Starzinger/Spaceketeers Anime

American producer William Winckler revealed, in an interview posted on Saturday on the website SciFi Japan, that he wrote, produced, and directed a nine-minute live-action pilot "based very, very loosely" on Toei Animation's Science Fiction Saiyuki Starzinger television series. (A shorter 3-minute pilot was also produced.)

Jim Terry Productions had dubbed the 1978-1979 Starzinger anime into English and aired it as Spaceketeers as part of its syndicated Force Five package in the United States. The original anime centered around a princess and her three android companions who embark on a journey to the Great Planet and save the universe.

The Toei-financed live-action pilot of Starzinger used Red Digital Cinema Camera technology along with green-screen compositing, computer animation, and music by Mel Lewis. Winckler reported that he presented the pilot to the American television channel Syfy, "and the president of Syfy liked it and wanted to see the finished movie."William Winckler Productions (WWP) is "now waiting to hear back from Toei on the next step," although the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster "put a hold on a lot of things."

Over the past two years, WWP produced 23 English-dubbed, feature-length compilations of several Toei Animation titles, including three for Starzinger. Winckler had previously worked on the 1984 English dub for Tekkaman, the Space Knight (Uchū no Kishi Tekkaman, 1975), as well as the English dubs for other animated and live-action works.

Toei also commissioned pilots for computer-animated remakes of its Space Pirate Captain Harlock and Gaiking anime, and it first screened the pilots during Tokyo International Anime Fair in 2010.

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Make of it what you will. I, for one, thinks its too late for this kind of stuff. BUT he did say that is was very loosely based on Starzinger. To be honest, I am getting sick of the millions of remakes that have spewed out recently. Hey, here's an idea, make an original concept that defined this generation! Instead of making all of these Thundercats, Voltron Force, Smurfs, Gaiking, Akira, Cowboy Bebop and Transformers remakes, make our own classic series, is what I'm saying.

Meh, just ignore my input.

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Anime News - Bandai Entertainment Adds Nichijou, Gosick Anime

The North American anime and manga distributor Bandai Entertainment announced at its Otakon panel on Saturday that it licensed the Nichijō (My Ordinary Life) anime and Gosick anime. Bandai Entertainment also announced its license of the Nichijō manga and Code Geass: Shikkoku no Renya (Code Geass: Renya of the Darkness) manga.

Nichijou

Keiichi Arawi's original Nichijō manga revolves around a group of female students living what would be a normal high school life, except that it also includes a talking cat, a robot, deer-wrestling, and other strange anomalies. (!) Crunchyroll has been streaming Kyoto Animation's ongoing television adaptation outside Japan since it premiered in April.

Gosick

The Gosick anime adapts Kazuki Sakuraba's mystery novel series, in which Kazuya Kujo studies abroad at the Saint Marguerite Academy in a small European country in 1924. Kazuya joins forces with Victorique, a girl with deductive powers that rival Sherlock Holmes', to solve mysteries. The anime ran in Japan from January to June, and Crunchyroll streamed it outside Japan. Tokyopop released two of the original light novel volumes in North America.

Code Geass: Renya of the Darkness

Goro Taniguchi, the director and story co-creator of the original Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion television anime series, created the Shikkoku no Renya manga spinoff's story concepts and scripted the story. The manga is set in the same official Code Geass history as the anime, but in Japan's historical Edo era. The story begins when Renya, a 17-year-old boy with a mechanical left arm and shuriken-throwing skills, encounters a mysterious, perpetually young woman named "Reifū C.C." Artist Tomomasa Takuma launched the manga in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine last year after working on the Code Geass: Nightmare of Nunnally and Kurogane Communication manga. (Bandai Book published Nightmare of Nunnally and other earlier Code Geass manga, while Go! Comi published Kurogane Communication. The second compiled book volume of Shikkoku no Renyashipped in Japan in May.

(animenewsnetwork.com)

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Anime News - ICv2: North American Manga Sales Fell 15% in 2010

The retail news source ICv2 reported at its ICv2 Comics, Media, and Digital Conference last week that North American sales for manga fell from (US)$140 million in 2009 to (US)$120 million in 2010, a decrease of 15%. This is awful news because according to ANN.com, manga sales in 2007 and 2008 were (US)$210 million and (US)$175 million, respectively, which means that manga sales have actually decreased by aroung 43% between 2007 and 2010. That's not the end of it there; The sales drop in 2010 is actually smaller than the 20% assum that ICv2 estimated last October!

And converting this to yen doesn't help due to the fact that the dollar has weakened, as sales have dropped from 2007's ¥25 billion to the ¥10.5 billion reported for 2010.

But every cloud has its silver lining, right? ICv2 stated that there are signs that the US sales decline might actually be slowing this year, if not ending. According to animeanime.biz, first quarter sales in 2011 were down 10%, which is better than recent years (declines in 2008, 2009, and 2010 were 17%, 23%, and 15%, respectively.).

The overall North American comic marketplace, including Japanese manga, dropped 7% to (US)$635 million in 2010, making it the third straight year of decline. "Floppy" magazine-style comic sales dropped 8%, while compiled graphic novel volumes dropped 5%. ICv2 associated the slump to the overall economic situation as well as the downturn in retail as shown by the bankruptcy of the Borders bookstore chain.

Conversely, the North American digital comic market actually grew from (US)$500,000 to (US)$1 million in 2009, to (US)$6-8 million this year.

ICv2 referenced four topical points in the North American manga marketplace in the past year: Viz Media maintaining its strong #1 market share, Tokyopop's leaving the manga business, Kodansha entering the market, and Yen Press rising to #2 in market share.

(animeanime.biz)

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Anime News - Astarotte's Toy! EX Video Anime's Promo Streamed

The YouTube channel of the Astarotte's Toy! (Astarotte no Omocha!) anime began streaming a promotional video of footage from the upcoming EX Blu-ray Disc and DVD volume on Saturday. However, the official blog for the anime acknowledged that the volume has been delayed from August 26 to September 7.

The EX original video anime will feature side stories not shown during the recent television anime seriesadaptation of Yui Haga's original Lotte no Omocha! manga. The limited first edition of the EX volume will include a box illustrated by Haga for all seven volumes of the series, as well as a special CD and other bonus extras. Crunchyroll streamed the television series outside Japan as it aired.

(animenewsnetwork.com)
 

Here's the vid, folks. Looks interesting. =)

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Anime News - UK High Court: BT Must Block File Indexing Site

A judge in London's High Court of Justice ruled on Thursday that BT, the United Kingdom's largest Internet service provider (ISP), must block users from the file-indexing website Newzbin2. The plaintiffs were representatives of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), the industry group that includes movie studios such asWarner Bros., Fox, Disney, and Paramount Pictures.

The verdict set the precedent for forcing ISPs to block websites that share or index copyrighted material overthe Internet in the United Kingdom.

The defendants, Chris Elsworth, Thomas Hurst, and Lee Skillen, started up and managed Newzbin, a Britain-based website that indexes Usenet discussion groups with posted files. Users on Newzbin (and later on Newzbin2 on servers relocated outside the United Kingdom) pay money to search for archived files and directly download them at maxed-out speeds set by their ISP's.

The MPA argued that Newzbin2 receives over one million pounds (about US$1,643,000) a year from its 700,000 users through the illegal Internet distribution of movies and television programs.

The MPA won a similar case last year, forcing Newzbin to take down links to copyrighted material and payment of damages.

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Not quite anime news, but it could effect the way some people, moreso our friends from across the pond, when it comes to distribution of anime. What do you all think?

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Anime News - Hulu, Crunchyroll, Crackle to Stream Star Driver

The North American anime distributor Aniplex of America announced at its Otakon panel on Friday that the Hulu, Crunchyroll, and Crackle websites will begin streaming the Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto anime with English subtitles on August 17. The first two episodes will stream on that date, with a new episode every Wednesday after that.

(animenewsnetwork.com)

Looks really cool. I honestly have never heard of this show, but judging from the style and the logo (reminds me of Gunbuster), this series looks like another one for the torrent list.

Opening's nice too.

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